Gelid Darkforce Review

The Build

Building into the Darkforce is a bit of a mixed experience. The lack of space round the back coupled with a few other factors outlined below make it a bit of a chore to build into, and make it harder still to achieve a good tidy build. I was quite hopeful that the lack of space would be mitigated by the good spread of cable tie mounts, what I didn't forsee was that there was so little space I would have to forgo the mounts and stash the excess cable lengths into the unused 3.5" drive bays.

Although the vertically orientated cable management holes provide a good set of options for routing leads back to the motherboard and drives, the single small horizontal hole at the bottom of the case gets totally filled by the cables as they exit the PSU, making it impossible to feed the USB and audio and front I/O cables back through. No big deal you might think but what it means is they have to emerge through holes quite a long way from their destination sockets. This of course makes for an untidy interior, and I for one do not like untidy interiors.

A few more cms of space between the top of the PSU and the bottom of the Motherboard would have allowed for some better cable routing, or perhaps even an extra management hole, as it is, what was a relatively tidy area next to the PSU becomes something of a vipers nest.

The final straw came when I tried to get the side panel on. Having already had several goes at rear cable management and having finally resorted to stuffing it all into a drive bay I was amazed to find that only by using 90degree SATA connections coming from the back of the HDDs could I hope to get the door on. That's right, there's so little room that a standard straight plug SATA cable cannot be bent around tight enough within the space provided to get the door on.

Most Recent Comments

I really wish companies like Gelid just focused on their strengths. What's the unique selling point of this case? Derivative, bland looks, average price at best, average build quality. How anyone at Gelid thought it's a good idea releasing it is beyond me. Case might not be terrible on its own, but when put against the competition there is really no reason for anyone to buy this case. The R3 has the minimalist looks and sound insulation, Utgard better features and a more competitive price, lower end Corsair cases offer better looks and build quality for the same prices. I could go on with this. Lesson for Gelid and other similar outfits is if the best you can do is release an adequate, me too, product, then just don't bother.

Especially when it take ttl's precious time which could have been used for moving the review of the Shinobi XL up a day or two I hope this one is shaping up nicely.Quote

At first I really liked the color of the case but as I kept on reading it just got more and more bleh. To what Sieb said no there are very few that will try and make something worth buying. Someone makes something that works good and then everyone else just jumps on the train and keeps riding even after the consumers and tired of the same old thing...

Good review Tom! I am looking forward to your 680 review as it should be coming out really soon Quote

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